1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of, and device for, displaying a value or index of blood pressure within a living human or animal body which method includes the steps of sensing the emission of electrocardiographic R-waves, sensing the arrival of consequent pulses of blood at a chosen blood vessel and computing (i) an elapsed time TT between the sensed instant of emission of each R-wave and the sensed instant of arrival of the consequent pulse, and (ii) a heart beat rate HR, being a sensed number of R-waves occurring in a given unit of time.
2. Description of Related Art
Such a method is described in European patent application No. EP-A-0021800, which also discloses apparatus for carrying out such a method, but the disclosure concerns only the monitoring and display of a generalised blood pressure, not indicative of an underlying diastolic blood pressure. Strenuous exercise has a general effect of raising systolic blood pressure and heart rate, but has less effect on diastolic blood pressure.
In the field of preventative medical treatment of heart disease, there has long been a necessity for routine long term monitoring of diastolic blood pressure without significant disturbance of the ordinary life of the subject.